Conventional divers'suits are produced from neoprene and have numerous disadvantages. For example, when suits are folded for traveling, the neoprene creases at the folds and tends to retain the creases. Creases create air pockets which produce buoyancy. Another disadvantage is that neoprene is a closed cell foam material containing air pockets which, at normal atmospheric pressure, provide good insulative characteristics. However, under pressures experienced in a routine dive, the pockets collapse allowing the neoprene to be compressed to a fraction of its normal thickness with a concurrent decrease in insulative characteristics at a depth at which those characteristics are most needed, i.e., where the water is colder. Further, the air pockets make the suit more buoyant at shallow depths requiring use of weights for diving. Still further, the neoprene suits are generally difficult to don since they are desirably tight in order to eliminate air trapped between the suit and diver.
One prior art attempt to alleviate some of the above disadvantages has been to form a wet suit material of an outer Lycra fabric bonded to an inner plush fabric. One such material is available from Malden Mills, Inc. under the designation Polartec 2000. This material fails to overcome all the above disadvantages since it does not have the insulative qualities of suits made from neoprene.